Electronic commerce has become increasingly popular with consumers as the accessibility and ease of placing orders electronically or via the Internet continues to improve. At the same time, network-based retailers have continued to expand the availability of products and items available for purchase, lease, or other type of acquisition, electronically or via the Internet to thousands, or even millions, of items. As a result, consumers may choose from an unprecedented variety of items without leaving the home. In order to offer this wide selection of items, some retailers maintain numerous strategically placed fulfillment centers or other physical storage facilities that store items. After a consumer has placed an order for an item electronically or via the Internet, an order is received at the storage facility, and the item is shipped from the storage facility to the consumer.
One way retailers may differentiate their service from others is the delivery model. For example, some retailers may provide one or two-hour deliveries for select inventory items. To support such fast order fulfillment, small fulfillment centers may be used either in busy areas or in conjunction with sort centers. These fulfillment centers may be compact and offer a limited number (e.g., 25,000) of items for customers in a confined space. This allows the retailer to be closer to people to make the delivery time and potentially only sell high velocity, or “in demand” items.
A side effect of this smaller space is less shelving to stow these items before they get ordered. This means items are crammed into the stow space, making it more difficult to find these items when it's time to pick a one-hour delivery. Difficulty determining which space is open also makes it hard to efficiently store items in a way that supports the delivery constraints.